Serie A, Atalanta-Empoli 2-1: goals from Ebuehi, De Roon and Hojlund

From our correspondent Luca Taidelli

March 17th
– Bergamo

People from Bergamo have a hard head and are hard workers. Atalanta embodies this DNA and gets to the bottom of it with the nails of a humble Empoli, lucky to take the lead by carom, guilty of not closing it when he could but in the long run shredded by the Nerazzurri ardor. De Roon and Hojlund overturned Ebuehi’s leap and gave their people a vital victory to still believe in Europe after picking up the crumb of a point against Lecce, Milan, Udinese and Napoli.

FIRST HALF

—

Gasperini is betting on the Colombian duo Muriel-Zapata, as hasn’t happened since last August 13, in the first league match at Sampdoria. As then, Pasalic moves behind them, with Ruggeri preferred to Maehle on the left and Palomino who takes the center of defense to the detriment of Demiral. While awaiting the recovery of Vicario (confirmation for Perisan), Zanetti instead focuses on De Winter to support Luperto in the 4-man line and in the midfield he chooses the former Grassi and the 2003 Fazzini, with Marin and Bandinelli ready to take over. The other 2003 Baldanzi moves between the lines, ahead are Satriano and Caputo. Atalanta immediately bites into the match, also to exorcise the curse of scoring, which has been missing for 273 minutes after the kick-off (and the last one was a rebound, by Hojlund against Lecce). Pasalic, however, immediately eats up the babà prepared by Zappacosta and the suffocating pressure (seven corners taken after 14′) produces only handfuls of crosses, a header wide by Scalvini and a right-footed shot by De Roon which finds Perisan well placed. Empoli squeezed into two lines in front of their own area and struggled to restart, despite Baldanzi seeming as sparkling as prosecchino. In the first third of the match there is only the Goddess on the field, but in the end she gets lost in technical blunders – at least three missed hooks on the trocar -, Pasalic’s slowness, the strikers’ difficulty in finding the position (now too wide, now stepping on each other’s feet in the area) and opposition above all from the De Winter-Luperto couple in the centre. A misguided evening turns into a tragicomic in the 44th minute, when Empoli passes through Ebuehi on their first real lunge. Thrust from Parisi and Baldanzi on the left, ball in the center of the playmaker, Ruggeri sweeps towards Caputo who involuntarily triggers the Nigerian defender one meter from the goal line.

SECOND HALF

—

We start again with the same men but with an inverted script. Empoli comes out better from the blocks, with Caputo three times close to 2-0, but when Atalanta seems bewildered, they find a draw with the man who best embodies their DNA, De Roon, good at heading take time for Luperto on left-footed Ruggeri’s right-footed cross. The Goddess returns in full swing and Zanetti runs for cover by inserting Ismajli and Bandinelli in place of Grassi and Fazzini, with De Winter placing himself in front of the defence. Gasp, on the other hand, perhaps delays substitutions, because Zapata keeps few, but the unleashed Ruggeri nearly takes the lead with a header from an amen. Haas and Henderson for Akpa Akpro and Baldanzi complete the restyling of the Empoli midfielder, with a change to 5-3-2 to face the hail of crosses from their opponents. Only in the 76th minute did Gasp insert Lookman for Scalvini, switching to a 4-2-3-1 formation to look for three vital points also with Boga and Hojlund for the two Colombians. Just the Dane on the credits breaks through after a half-rebounded shot by Pasalic. The blond burns De Winter, flawless up to that point, and makes the Gewiss explode. This Atalanta will have its flaws, but with a heart like that you can still dream